Topic: electrical gurus, need your help

[brian c]

This relay that you mentioned, what is it called and NAPA you said carries it? So all I have to do is plug in that black connector to the "relay" and run a live wire to the alt. Am I correct?

High Speed fan relay. I think I got it from Napa although it might have been Autozone.

Yes once you plug it in and run the extra line, provided everything else is wired correctly and in working order, your fan should now work.

[78cali]

Cool, thanks! I'll go tomorrow and get that piece. I hope that the ground issue is the only problem.

[78ta]

I mentioned both grounds in my original post.

"If you removed the engine, you may have forgotten to reinstall the braided ground wire the goes from the engine block to the firewall. I believe there is another bare braided ground that goes from the trans to the frame on the pass side. These are very important."

It appears that one of yours has been replaced with a red battery cable as you described it. If it is too short, you can get a new braided ground cable at NAPA or just buy a piece of 8 gauge wire and some crimp on eyelets large enough to fit the wire. If you don't have a crimping tool, see if they'll crimp them on for you. It's a handy tool to have so you might want to buy one anyway. Just be sure to measure how long you need the wire to be before you go to NAPA so you know what you need.

As mentioned, the braided ground on the firewall just goes to one of the empty holes on the rear edge of the pass side head. Same hole you might put a bolt in with a chain on it in order to lift the engine out.

[78cali]

I took pics of what I found and yes, there's that braided wire that's not connected to anything except the firewall. There is no other braided wire underneath except for that big battery cable looking wire that I also took a pic of that's connected to the subframe. Should I just make one and where do I connect it?

[78cali]

It was a sweltering 112 degrees here today and muggy. Will tackle that tomorrow. Have you read my post about the other stuff that works?

[78ta]

By the way, in relation to my problem, I forgot to mention that the wiper and power windows work and all my gauges. Other than these, no power and no lights.

Ok, I'll look at the schematic again and see if that tells me anything more but I think you've isolated your main problem in the two missing main ground wires. I'd like to hear what your symptoms are once you hook the first one up between the head and the firewall and then hear what else, if anything, changes once you hook up the one between the frame and transmission or bell housing if you have a 4 speed.

[78ta]

Ok. The windshield wiper motor, windows and gauges all get their power from a fuse in the the fuse block in the cabin and their ground via the instrument panel ground down by the driver side courtesy light bulb. I'm thinking it and the other parts attached to the rear half of the chassis work because they are getting grounded through the shifter cable back to the battery. All of the grounds for the rear half of the car ground to the chassis sheet metal. The shifter cable is metal and connects to the sheet metal via the shifter and connects to the transmission on the other end which is connected to the engine which is connected to the starter which has the negative battery cable hooked to it. If you turn on a few things for a while and run your power windows up and down a few times then feel your shifter cable, it's probably getting warm, maybe even hot. If you do test this, feel the cable before running anything so you'll have a reference point as far as how warm it is or gets. If your running the engine, it could get warm just from the exhaust pipes.

This is why the braided ground cables, from the frame to the trans or bell housing and from the engine block/head to the chassis(firewall) are so important.

[78cali]

Gosh, very informative. Thank you so much!!!! I will surely give you an update and post it here tomorrow.

[78cali]

Okay, today I bolted on that braided wire from the firewall to the head........STILL no power to the front of the car.

I noticed though that when I pulled the light switch, the left turn signal indicator light went on, not flashing but just remained lit.

Could it be grounded somehow, maybe....I don't know. I checked the turn signal lever and it was not engaged.

No courtesy light, no headlights, no horn......everything that I initially stated remains the same.

[78cali]

More news:

When I turned the turn signal on, both front and back lit up but with the lights off.

I turn the lights on and only the rear blinks slowly, none in front.

I hope that means something.  Please help!!!

[78cali]

Okay, more updates:

I was jiggling wires under the driver side dash and now I have instrument panel lights (very weak) and the high beam indicator light went on. The left turn signal indicator light went off as well (but not for long) it went back on and high beam indicator light went off. Still no headlights. Power windows went up and down slower than a sloth....hahaha. I had to rev the motor for it to go any faster.

Anyway, with this I hope I'm getting somewhere and will make it easier to diagnose....still need your help!!!!

[78cali]

I tested the horn manually and one of them works while the other doesn't. Which wires do I look for from inside the car? Will it come from the column? Is it part of the harness?

[78cali]

Sorry guys, I'm posting as I go along with this tedious thing. Here are some pics of connectors that I stumbled upon and no where to go:

Found this under the dash by the steering column


These bunch from where the radio location. Some of them have direct power and some, the key needs to be turned on.


This is what I'm talking about, when the lights are on, the left turn signal indicator lights up.


Jiggling the wires also turns the high beam indicator light. Further jiggling cuts power to all.

[brian c]

Your horns are part of the forward light harness in the engine compartment.

Pic #1: Honestly I don't remember that connector.

Pic #2: STOP!!! You've got bare wires in there! At least tape them up before continuing to troubleshoot your electrical issues. If one of those is live, and it comes in contact with a ground like your dash you've just created a toaster.

Pic #3: Is more than likely related to your lack of forward lights. When mine did this it was due to the car having an insufficient ground at the radiator core support. Once I added a dedicated ground that issue went away. It's also entirely possible that you have a blown marker light as I believe GM engineered it so that this would happen if a bulb blew on the same side as the turn signal indicator.

[78cali]

I just pulled them out so there's no contact since I tested them and YES, some of them do have power.